Monograms: Sorrento, Rome, Florence, Venice and Taormina.
1 – 21 April 2016
I’ve been to Italy several times but the visits were short incursions into the country. The longest stretch was five days in Rome in 1994 as R&R while serving in Bosnia. During that time, I took a day trip to Pompeii where I was disappointed that we got less than two hours at the site. I swore I’d return.
Tossing a coin over my shoulder into the Trevi Fountain pretty well sealed the deal.
I love travel by rail, so the Monograms tour appealed to me immediately. When I saw that I could visit the cities I really wanted to see plus add extra time at the start to ensure a longer visit to Pompeii, I was sold.
Then I realized the dates matched up so that I could add the extension to Sicily.
Perfect!
I picked April as a lot of tourist stuff isn’t offered until the season begins. Late March was also Easter, so going the first week of April helped me avoid the crowds and closures. In 1994, our visit was during Easter week and we left the Sistine Chapel until the last day only to find out that it was one of the three days in which it was closed.
Another reason to return.
I wrote this tale as I travelled so it is very detailed (and might have a few typos that I’m slowly getting around to fixing). You can start with the Travel Days or navigate to individual days with the Table of Contents.
All the photos from this tour can be found on my flickr page.
Enjoy!
🙂